# Desktop viewer: stockpile volumes step by step, from the ground to each pile

> Read the ground, choose the base, outline each pile, check it by colour, and measure down to the real floor when a survey shows it.

Page: https://finitor.cl/learn/desktop-stockpile-steps

Video: https://finitor.cl/learn/desktop-stockpile-steps-en.mp4 — The coal and iron-ore yard of the port of Rotterdam, airborne LiDAR of February 2023: six piles outlined by hand, highlighted by their height above the base, and one measured down to the floor its bay showed empty in 2016. Data: AHN (Actueel Hoogtebestand Nederland) via GeoTiles, TU Delft — AHN3 public domain, AHN5 CC BY Het Waterschapshuis; aerial photos Beeldmateriaal Nederland, CC BY 4.0.

## Read the ground

1. A pile's volume is the material between its surface and the ground beneath it. That ground is covered, so it is estimated from the ground around the pile: look at it first.
2. With the Point tool, click the ground on each side of the pile: each click shows its elevation. With the Height tool, click the top and then the floor. If the ground differs from one side to the other, the base must follow it.

## Choose the base

1. Toe plane fits a plane to the ground along the outline you draw: for a pile on sloping or uneven ground.
2. Lowest toe uses the outline's lowest point, for a pile in a bay; Fixed level uses an elevation you type, for a flat floor you know.
3. Floor surface measures down to a cloud that shows the floor: the yard surveyed while empty, or a bay before it was filled. Load it with Floor cloud….

Piles of one yard may stand on different floors: choose a pile under Pile and give it its own base in Its base, with its own level if it is a fixed one.

## Outline each pile

1. Look at the pile from above and click Outline a pile. Click around its toe, right where the slope meets the ground, and right-click to close: the volume appears at once.
2. Those clicks set the base: if they sit up the slope, the base rises and the volume falls. Where two piles come close, follow the bottom of the valley between them.
3. The Measurements tab lists each pile with its cut (above the base), its fill (hollows below it) and its net, the pile's volume.

## Check, and report

1. Highlight piles colours each pile by its height above its own base, with contour bands; the rest of the scene turns grey, and anything below a base shows in blue.
2. Over a floor cloud the program says how much of the pile it covered, and warns when it rises inside the pile (it may still hold material) or sits away from the ground along the toe.
3. Type the material's density to get tonnes, then Report… writes a PDF with every pile, its base and a view from above, or a CSV.

In this yard, five piles stood wholly on floor seen bare in 2016: against that floor, the toe plane gave 4 to 7 % less, the lowest toe 2 to 6 % more.

## More about Finitor Cloud

- [Finitor Cloud: photogrammetry and LiDAR in the cloud](https://finitor.cl/)
- [Cloud photogrammetry](https://finitor.cl/fotogrametria-en-la-nube)
- [LiDAR classification](https://finitor.cl/clasificacion-lidar)
- [Point cloud viewer](https://finitor.cl/visor-nube-de-puntos)
- [Pricing](https://finitor.cl/pricing)
- [Features](https://finitor.cl/features)
- [Measured accuracy](https://finitor.cl/accuracy)
- [Demonstration: a finished survey](https://finitor.cl/demo)
- [How it works](https://finitor.cl/how)
- [Tutorials](https://finitor.cl/learn)
- [Finitor Desktop, the desktop application](https://finitor.cl/viewer)
- [Contact](https://finitor.cl/contact)
- [Terms and privacy](https://finitor.cl/terms)